Georgios,

With all due respect, I disagree with your statements about the Bible.  I do not find it hard to understand nor do I find any messages to decode.  The problem is, no one puts what the Bible says into action.

In my opinion, a leader is a person involved in a process of influencing and developing others in order to accomplish God’s purpose, in God’s way, and in God’s power.

Simply put… Leadership = Influence.  If you’re a parent, your success as a parent is determined by your ability to influence your children in a positive way.  If you’re a teacher your success depends on your ability to influence your pupils.  If you’re a coach, a manager at work, if you’re a friend, a colleague, if you connect with people in any way, you are an influencer.    

Of course the greatest influencer and leader of all time is Jesus Christ.  One definition of leadership says, “It is the ability of a leader to affect human behavior so as to accomplish a mission.”  Well, if that’s it then Jesus is clearly the greatest leader of all time.  I remember at the turn of the new millennium, TIME magazine ran a cover article that was not the “Person of the Year” or the decade, or even the century, but the person of the millennium. 

Guess who it was? 

Jesus. 

I remember thinking, yea and the millennium before that as well!  Jesus remains the greatest influencer of lives in our day- and He always will be.  And He leads in a way that no one will ever match. 

I’ve been, for years, studying the leadership of Jesus- and trying to emulate it in my life as a husband, as a father, and a friend.  I have been led to the Beatitudes as a model for leadership and influence in our day.

Read the Beatitudes- Matthew 5 and see if the traits Jesus offers there describe your life or the lives of our leaders.  I’m finding in the Beatitudes something I’ve never seen before: I believe that in the Beatitudes we find the ingredients necessary for leadership in our world today (and it has been an amazing journey for me thus far). 

The BIG idea in this: In the Beatitudes Jesus describes what it is to be a person of influence.

Now, if only our global leaders would embrace these ideas....

Wishing all the best to you and yours,

Andy